Field
The present disclosure relates to electronic circuits and, more particularly, to active baluns for wideband applications.
Background
A balun converts between single-ended and differential signals. Baluns are commonly used with radio frequency (RF) signals in wireless communication systems. In wireless communication devices, many antennas use single-ended signals and many circuits use differential signals with baluns converting between the single-ended and differential signals.
Some prior active baluns, for example, baluns using a common-gate common-source architecture, may have poor performance with their output signals not being truly differential in phase or in amplitude. Additionally, these prior active baluns may not function at high frequencies (e.g., 5 GHz) due, for example, to sensitivity to parasitic components. Other prior active baluns, for example, using a differential amplifier architecture, may require a mismatch compensation circuit which increases power and circuit area. Additionally, these prior active baluns may suffer from instability issues.